The ongoing development of data networks includes improving the quality of and access to real-time media services that emulate, enhance and/or replace services provided by other systems. For example, voice data call services over data networks are offered as substitutes for voice telephony on public-switched telephone networks (PSTN). The use of data networks allows voice data calls to be enhanced with video and/or other telepresence services that are more difficult, if not impossible, to provide using a PSTN alone.
Real-time media services often rely on direct communication links between endpoints in order to achieve desired performance levels, and in some cases, achieve even provision a usable level of service. As such, a sufficiently direct path between endpoints is preferred for such services. However, in distributed systems, a sufficiently direct path is not always possible. This is especially problematic for voice and video data calls, in which insufficiently direct connections can severely impact call quality or even preclude the provisioning of a real-time media service.
Media relay services are often used to establish sufficiently direct connections in order to enable provisioning of a real-time media service and/or improve the quality of real-time media services between communication endpoints. As a result, once established, voice data calls using media relay services have comparable call quality to PSTN calls. However, media relay services are often gated using an authentication system. Previously available authentication systems add undesirable delay to the delivery and/or access to a real-time media service, which in turn diminish the user experience and undermine the performance goals.
In accordance with common practice various features shown in the drawings may not be drawn to scale, as the dimensions of various features may be arbitrarily expanded or reduced for clarity. Moreover, the drawings may not depict all of the aspects and/or variants of a given system, method or device admitted by the specification. Finally, like reference numerals are used to denote like features throughout the specification and figures.